7.8.16

Embattled
former Chairman of the House of Reps Committee on Appropriation,
Abdulmumin Jibrin, has ignored his party, APC's directive to stop
issuing statement on his fight with Speaker Yakubu Dogara and 13 other
lawmakers.

In a
statement he released this evening, Jibrin alleged that two serving
governors are working with some other politicians to give Dogara soft
landing on the alleged budget padding scandal. In the statement, Jibrin
says Dogara's face, cap, Agbada and even his shoes radiate corruption
and abuse of office. He alleged Dogara also receives 25million naira
every month. Read his statement below...

It has once again become necessary for me to make some statements, clarifications and further revelations.

As
you are aware, my party the APC has intervened in the current crisis,
following allegations of corruption, embezzlement and gross abuse of
office I leveled against Speaker Yakubu Dogara, three other principal
officers and 9 other members, of which none had responded to any.

As
I said earlier, it is only the 13 members of the House that are on
trial not the House of Representative as an institution. Surprisingly,
they have resorted to using every tactics to narrow the allegations to
only issue of padding, which in itself is a grievous offense, ignoring
tens of other criminal allegations contained in my petition to the
anti-corruption agencies. In doing so, they mischievously expanded the
scope of the culpability to give an impression that the entire House,
Senate and even the Executive arm of government and some individuals
outside NASS are on trial.

This
is a wicked attempt to drag many institutions and individuals into the
matter to neutralize the issue, spread fear and sell the dummy that the
entire country will go down if this matter is dealt with decisively.
This is the biggest blackmail I have ever seen. Nigerians should know
that the whole agenda of this blackmail is being coordinated by a group
of five people, two serving Governors and three former members of the
House. I will give their names in due course. They have been running
pillar to post and I keep wondering what really do they have to hide or
are afraid of since they are not Members of the House.

The
meeting with the party went very well and in all honesty they were very
objective and showed understanding. I told the party that I will be
part of any peaceful resolution EXCEPT on the criminal allegations I
have raised against Speaker Dogara and 12 others. On that, I told the
party there is no going back and further informed them that more
revelations will be made once investigation commences. I also informed
the party that I will stand as witness against them and provide every
support that will help investigation and prosecution of these 13
extremely corrupt members. The party wrote and asked that Dogara and I
should stop further public statements on this issue. I respected the
party and stopped further statement but kept a close watch on what was
going on. Of course I have my network everywhere.

After
three days of careful observation and receiving information from very
patriotic Nigerians, I discovered a grand plan by the group of two
Governors and three former members designed to provide soft-landing for
Dogara and 12 others, give them time to clean up the mess on their desk,
destroy whatever evidence in their possession and reach, spread money
across members to buy signature of vote of confidence, try to scare and
drag as many people as they can into this matter, invade the party and
top government officials and influential people that have the ears of
the president and try to change the media and public narrative by
embarking on very expensive media campaign to discredit and attack my
person with all manner of lies they can concoct.

I
have made it a duty to respond to all the allegations against me. The
latest they brought up this weekend has already been taken care of in my
soon-to-be-released memoir. But I have decided not to wait until my
birthday in September to release it. I will start releasing the memoir
in piecemeal any moment from now so that answers to their cheap
blackmail, including the junk and lies they peddle in the media, will be
provided. While I was determined to observe the ceasefire, Dogara and
his group of few rogues didn't. I called Sen Lawali Shuaibu and
complained on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. He promised to reach the Speaker. On Friday the Speaker spoke to the press after meeting the president on the matter, and they launched a massive attack on me on Saturday and today Sunday
in the media, while the party is keeping a sealed lip. No body will
blame me that I responded. Iam completely convinced that the two
Governors and three former members were already at work. I know them
like the palms of my hands, and I know how they operate. But Almighty
God is more than them.

I
was shocked and dumbfounded when I saw the Speaker on television saying
padding is not an offense not because of the disgraceful contradiction
after clearly stating that I was "sacked" for padding but I could not
believe he could have the temerity to make such reckless, insensitive,
arrogant and fraudulent statement right within the sanctity of the
president's Presidential Villa, a place that symbolizes zero tolerance
for corruption. If you watched the Speaker on the screen talking, you
can clearly see that from his face, cap, Agbada, down to his shoes, it
was a radiation of corruption, dirty money, monumental fraud and abuse
of office. It was irritating to see such character around the corridors
of power.

He
didn't know that by that statement he has clearly confirmed my
allegation that he and 3 others connived with some committee chairmen to
insert into the budget over 2,000 items worth 284billion naira. No
wonder he refused to take action despite my complaint. Now that I have
provided evidence that he and 3 others masterminded the insertion of 40
billion naira into the budget, another wasteful 20billion naira and
attempt to force me to insert another 30billion naira into the budget,
padding is no longer an offense???! So the Speaker is saying the nine
roads he inserted into the budget which he fraudulently sandwiched into 4
roads and inserted billions into that without any design or costing is
not an offense? Or the water project he hijacked from the budget and
took to his farm is not an offense? Or moving ten solar boreholes to a
place that probably requires just two is not an offense? This has really
proved that Speaker Dogara is the son, father, grand father and great
grand father of padding! Nigerians are watching!!!

Let
me make further revelations here. In addition to the allegations I
already made, the anti-corruption agencies should ask Speaker Dogara why
on earth he collects 25million naira every month just to spend it the
way he wants. They should also ask him to provide proof of how he is
funding his farm in Nasarawa State which was just few hectares six
months ago and now miraculously expands to about 100 hectares with new
buildings and state-of-the-art equipment worth millions as well as the
mansion he has suddenly built in Wuse II within six months.

It
will be unfair to drag the Senate or senators into this matter.
Everybody knows that it is the House that has commanding powers over
appropriation. There is nothing in the senate appropriation committee
secretariat, that is why I requested for the protection of only that of
the House when I heard Dogara was planning to destroy the computers and
the hardware. The Senate president was too busy then to even get
involved. He was always receiving what I later realized was skeletal
briefing from the Speaker. It is also a strong tradition of the National
Assembly that in an event of disagreement between standing committee of
the Senate and the House, that of the House supersedes. That was
exactly what we did on 2016 budget except that of Health, where we
adopted the report of the Senate because the chairman House Committee on
Health practically converted the budget to his personal estate, moving
massive amount of money that made the whole exercise looked like a big
joke. I heard the chairman Hon Chike Okafor talking, trying to put
defence on TV, and I simply said truly looters have no shame in Nigeria.
The Minister of Health Prof Adewale is alive to testify and he knows
the role I played to get the health budget, atleast to an implementable
shape.

All
government and security agencies and top government functionaries
should be wary of the activities of these two governors and three former
members going round trying to blackmail the Senate and the Executive
arm of government in order to diffuse and neutralize the allegations
that will change the history of Nigerian parliament for good. We may
never have this kind of opportunity to deal decisively with corruption
in the House. We may never! If you observe carefully, you will notice
attempts last week to wickedly drag the Senate, DSS, SGF and others into
this matter. This is all orchestrated by the group of 2 governors, 3
former members and Speaker Dogara and his corrupt cabal. Nobody is in a
better position than me to know who the culprits are. The next time you
see them in your offices trying to blackmail you that these allegations
will bring down the whole country, report them to the police
immediately. These allegations are on Speaker Dogara and 12 others and
will not in anyway bring down the House, the Senate or the Executive arm
of government as they are claiming in their widely spread propaganda.

Part
of the grand plan is also to peg the blackmail on religious line.
Speaker Dogara forgot that it was me, a Muslim from North West that
spearheaded his election despite all the challenges I faced.

I
believe Speaker Dogara, the 12 others and some vested interest within
and outside the House want to kill me. I no longer feel safe. I have
carefully followed their desperation to suppress what will go down in
history as the biggest corruption case in Nigeria. I have prepared
myself for any eventuality. I have spoken to my mum and dad extensively
during the weekend. I have prepared my family. I have handed over a
handwritten note and documents to a popular SAN, a man of integrity and
other persons that I believe will lay it bare even if they succeed in
killing me.

It
is a fact that all the members that signed for Dogara's vote of
confidence collected money in a shameful and disgraceful exercise, and
despite that the consensus remains the Speaker must step aside and face
external investigation.

Finally,
this cabal of two governors and three former members have blocked every
avenue that I can use to reach the President so that he can get a
different perspective on this issue. Iam therefore left with no choice
than to plead with all our former Heads of State, Gen Yakubu Gowon, Gen
Olusegun Obasanjo, Alh Shehu Shagari, Gen Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Enest
Shonekan, Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar and Dr Goodluck Jonathan and the
diplomatic community, particularly Ambassador of the United States of
America, High Commissioner of the United Kingdom, the German and French
Ambassadors and all well-meaning Nigerians to join in the call on the
corrupt and fraudulent Speaker Dogara and 3 others to reconvene the
House immediately, step aside and allow for a thorough external
investigation and also call on the anti-corruption agencies to expedite
action on investigation and commencement of prosecution in line with the
anti corruption stands of this government.